In a down hole fluid sampling process, the primary objective is to obtain or identify formation samples representative of true, for example, clean formation fluid or native fluid with a low contamination level of borehole fluids or drilling fluids.
The level of acceptable contamination may be limited by many factors such as geographical location, permeability, fluid viscosity, borehole stability, invasion, sampling difficulties, and economics. One of the primary limiting factors occurs when attempting to sample multiphase fluids. In the case of oil and water or gas and oil, the two phases are not fully mixed and may flow at different rates in a sampling tool. This leads to misleading results from downhole fluid identification sensors and highly contaminated samples.
What is needed is a measuring device that will allow measurement and identification of various phases of the formation fluid and response of the formation sample under various conditions. What is further needed is a way to retrieve a more representative and less contaminated sample in a faster period of time.